Pine Bluff OKs plan to move police patrol division

The City Council and Pine Bluff Mayor Debe Hollingsworth had been at odds about where to move the patrol division, which is now in an industrial area.

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By Associated Press

Stuttgart Daily Leader - Stuttgart, AR

By Associated Press

Posted Sep. 24, 2013 at 9:46 AM

By Associated Press

Posted Sep. 24, 2013 at 9:46 AM

PINE BLUFF, Ark.

Leaders in Pine Bluff have reached an agreement to relocate the police department's patrol division to a city-owned armory building near the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

The City Council and Pine Bluff Mayor Debe Hollingsworth had been at odds about where to move the patrol division, which is now in an industrial area. The council favored moving the division to the armory while the mayor backed a plan to relocate the division to the Pines Mall.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Monday (http://bit.ly/16lPbyT ) that both sides have agreed to move the division to the armory and add a police substation to the shopping mall.

A plan approved last week also calls for renovations to police headquarters at the Pine Bluff Civic Center complex.

Hollingsworth has said the armory may need as much as $700,000 in renovations before the patrol division could move there. Funding to renovate the armory and police headquarters will come from the city's five-eighths percent sales tax, passed in 2011 to fund city infrastructure improvements.

The Police Department has a little more than $1 million available from the tax to spend on infrastructure improvements.

Angela Hardy lives near the former armory and said she welcomes the idea of relocating the patrol division there.

"It will make thieves and people who break the laws in this area think twice because the cops will just be right here, right next door," Hardy said. "I have been a victim before, and I hope this sends a message that this neighborhood isn't open for crime anymore."